Vampire Circus - 50th Anniversary Limited Edition [Blu-ray]

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Revisiting The House of Hammer: Britain's Legendary Horror Magazine (HD; 9:47) continues the Ballyhoo tradition with an The uniformly excellent cast are well chosen and are not the the familiar Hammer faces. Thorley Walters (the burgomeister) is the only Hammer regular here. Anthony Corlan had appeared as Paul in Taste the Blood of Dracula, but is unrecognizable as Emil, the shape-shifting vampire. This gives Vampire Circus a unique texture, allowing us to accept the the characters more readily. visual pizazz or thematic import -- but where it comes up short in purpose it rises to the occasion with a premise that should satisfy moviegoers in

aficionados. Now with wide distribution, cheap replication, and a demand for reviving long-forgotten favorites on DVD and, now, in high definition Thus, we find that Synapse provide fans with a few things that they never thought they would see. Not only have we now got one of Hammer's most outlandish and controversial titles on Blu-ray, but we've also got an honest-to-goodness making-of for it, as well, entitled The Bloodiest Show On Earth: Making Vampire Circus. Now, granted, a lot of those involved with the film are no longer with us, or possibly disinclined to discuss their contribution but, with the extensive aid of Philip Nutman, Ted Newsom, Tim Lucas, Joe Dante and Dave Prowse, this still delivers lots of goodies in the process of telling us how Vampire Circus came into being, and how Hammer was forced to accept new blood and a new style if they wanted to survive into the seventies, and not merely rehash former glories and eventually wither away and crumble to dust like the Count, himself. Well, okay, they did still wither away and crumble do dust, but, just like the Count, himself, they would return with the great TV series, Hammer House Of Horror, and then, finally, against all the odds, be resurrected with Let Me In in 2010. bad guys, but in a broader sense, the picture's at-times lavish but ultimately low budget feel and rather uneventful plot.Synapse's Blu-ray release eclipses any version put out before. The transfer comes courtesy of a solid AVC encode that brings the film's original 1.66:1 image to darkly lustrous life. Earlier editions had been cropped top and bottom, or reformatted into full-frame versions. The print here has no obtrusive edge enhancement, no overt noise reduction and retains its grain. Compression defects are kept at bay, but I did spot a modicum of aliasing during the odd moment of fast action. Nor is there much in the way of wear and tear, the picture stable – okay it does some very slight shimmying during one stretch that I noticed – and clean. I have given the disc three stars for the film as the film is slightly brighter than the US version.

Flesh & Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror (HD; 2:26:34) is an absolutely first rate history of the studio, with a ton of insightful Vampire Circus debuts on Blu-ray with several quality supplements -- including an insightful and well-made documentary -- as well as the movies but it instead sports a spunk and spirit and novelty that balances out the film's shortcomings, rounding it not into a great or even good film, among some that Hammer's overall quality not necessarily confined to so-called "franchises" declined as the sixties wore on, is where things may Official description: It is an offbeat, highly surreal number with oodles of blood and gore thrown in. A Transylvanian village is sealed off from the outside world due to an outbreak of the plague. Anyone who tries to get in or out is shot dead by the police. Nevertheless, a traveling circus somehow breaks through the lines, and boy, are all its bloodless-looking performers a wee bit strange!pleasure. Hammer certainly enjoyed a bit more recognition and distribution than did Corman's New World Pictures label, but both -- Corman's heyday coming along at the tail end of Hammer's reign -- certainly represented off-the-beaten-path sorts of Horror films that were gobbled up by serious genre

a dreadful transfer of the extras(or is it just my disc)They have been ported over from the US Blu ray which looked great on the US disc. It would appear quality control was not top of the list with this release as the picture image is awful for the extras. review of that release. Marty's review is also a good resource for screenshot comparisons and lining up supplements between the two releases.The film marks time in annoying little ways. After the prologue, for instance, there's a long debate among the villagers about this existence (or not) of vampires. In as much as the audience has just unequivocally seen one in all its pointy-fanged glory, what's the point? There are a few names that will immediately command the attention of the underground Horror movie fan, those who appreciate the finer, smaller entertain, but give it some props for originality, at least in the way it cobbles together some well-worn elements and mixes them together in what is The Bloodiest Show on Earth: Making Vampire Circus (1080p, 32:39): A new documentary that looks at the history of

THE BLOODIEST SHOW ON EARTH' documentary featuring interviews from renowned director Joe Dante and actor Dave Prowse A little girl is brutally slain by a vampire in a tiny 19th century Austrian village. Seeking revenge, the townspeople invade the foreboding castle of Count Mitterhaus and kill him for the crime. As the Count dies, he curses the villagers and vows that their children will all die so that he may someday return to life. Fifteen years later, as the village is ravaged by the plague, a traveling circus comes to town and distracts the villagers from their current hardships. Little do they know that their troubles are only beginning! The circus is actually a troupe of shape-shifting vampires and, as the local children start disappearing, they realize the prophecy of the long dead Count is coming true. Visiting the House of Hammer: Britain's Legendary Horror Magazine (1080p, 9:47): Author Philip Nutman looks at the role of Hammer Gallery of Grotesqueries: A Brief History of Circus Horrors (1080p, 15:07): A fascinating and all-too-short retrospective ontexture of the period clothing, the town's dirt terrain, or various woodland vegetation outside of town -- can be quite good. Colors are slightly faded but response might be focused on some of Hammer's now legendary output beginning in 1957 with The Curse of Frankenstein, and continuing at least through both some of the subsequent